Saturday, April 30, 2011

Alzheimer's disease begins long before family and friends notice differences in the patient's memory and behavior, doctors who treat the condition said Monday. By the time an official diagnosis is made, the person's function is usually significantly impaired and treatment rarely helps.

Doctors are suggesting a redefinition of Alzheimer's that would include even mild memory and behavioral symptoms. Disease experts expect an increase in the number of patients receiving the Alzheimer's diagnosis as a result of the change.

The idea, proposed by the Alzheimer's Association and the National Institutes of Health, would define Alzheimer's as a 'spectrum' disease, creating three stages ranging from lesser to greater severity in hopes that the devastating neurological condition could be detected earlier.

In the U.S., 5.4 million people have an Alzheimer's diagnosis. By 2050, that number is expected to more than triple."

First stage: Preclinical Alzheimer's disease

This stage is for research purposes only and will have no effect in your doctor's office.

The idea is that patients could be developing Alzheimer's, even when they are free of cognitive or memory problems.

This stage is to help researchers determine whether there is a biological change caused by Alzheimer's that can be detected through blood, spinal fluid test or neuroimaging. Right now, there is no test that accurately predict whether a person will develop Alzheimer's disease.

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While studies show that Alzheimer's patients experience changes in the brain -- the buildup of amyloid protein tangles and nerve cell changes -- it is unknown whether this means an inevitable progression to Alzheimer's dementia.

"Changes in their brain can be measured, but we can't predict for sure whether they're going to have the clinical disease," said Dr. Creighton Phelps, director of the Alzheimer's Disease Centers Program of the National Institutes of Health.

These tests are used only in research settings.

Scientists are working to develop a more definitive test or a scan to determine Alzheimer's risk.

Second stage: Mild cognitive impairment (MCI)

Long before a person gets an Alzheimer's diagnosis, he or she may show small changes in memory, behavior and thinking. This is called mild cognitive impairment.

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While it does not cripple a person's ability to function throughout the day, these differences are often noticed by friends and family members.

Some patients in this stage are already observed by their doctors as "probable Alzheimer's."

This is a gray area because not all memory problems are Alzheimer's-related. Cognitive difficulties could stem from other factors such as a drug's side effects or vascular disease.

This stage could be used in specialized Alzheimer's clinics. A specialist might determine that the cognitive problems are caused by underlying Alzheimer's disease after a comprehensive exam, based on the disease process and symptoms, said Dr. John C. Morris, director and principal investigator of the Alzheimer's Disease Research Center at the Washington University School of Medicine.

But there are no blood or medical tests available in doctors' offices to confirm whether the mild cognitive impairment is because of Alzheimer's.

Third stage: Dementia because of Alzheimer's

This is the stage when memory, thinking and behavioral symptoms have become so damaging that the patient's ability to function is hindered.

The disease is not solely restricted to memory problems. The new guidelines include other symptoms such as difficulty finding words, visual and spatial problems, impaired reasoning and judgment.

This is the stage that people are most familiar with. The patient eventually becomes unable to carry out basic daily tasks -- eating, bathroom-related functions and is fully dependent on others for basic care.

The purpose of setting out these updated stages of Alzheimer's is aimed at the future, Creighton said, to "define a research strategy for people who may be at risk for Alzheimer's."

That is amazing to me. Half!! And how does this make sense to anyone on Earth?

Consumer Reports lists the 12 supplements that you should avoid the most. I'm going to tell you that healthy cultures don't take supplements at all. They take a different medicine ... it's called food.

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Working with experts from the Natural Medicines Comprehensive Database, an independent research group, we identified a group of ingredients (out of nearly 1,100 in the database) linked to serious adverse events by clinical research or case reports.

To come up with our dozen finalists, we also considered factors such as whether the ingredients were effective for their purported uses and how readily available they were to consumers. We then shopped for them online and in stores near our Yonkers, N.Y., headquarters and easily found all of them for sale in June 2010.

The FDA has warned about at least eight of them, some as long ago as 1993.

Why are they still for sale? Two national retailers we contacted about specific supplements said they carried them because the FDA has not banned them. The agency has "the authority to immediately remove them from the market, and we would follow the FDA recommendation," said a spokeswoman for the Vitamin Shoppe chain.

Most of the products we bought had warning labels, but not all did. A bottle of silver we purchased was labeled "perfectly safe," with an asterisked note that said the FDA had not evaluated the claim. In fact, the FDA issued a consumer advisory about silver (including colloidal silver) in 2009, with good reason: Sold for its supposed immune system "support," it can permanently turn skin bluish-gray.

Janis Dowd, 56, of Bartlesville, Okla., says she started taking colloidal silver in 2000 after reading online that it would keep her Lyme disease from returning. She says her skin changed color so gradually that she didn't notice, but others did. "They kept saying, 'You look a little blue.'"

Laser treatments have erased almost all the discoloration from Dowd's face and neck, but she said it's not feasible to treat the rest of her body.

Under the Dietary Supplement Health and Education Act (DSHEA), it is difficult for the FDA to put together strong enough evidence to order products off the market. To date, it has banned only one ingredient, ephedrine alkaloids. That effort dragged on for a decade, during whichephedra weight-loss products were implicated in thousands of adverse events, including deaths. Instead of attempting any more outright bans, the agency issued warnings, detained imported products, and asked companies to recall products it considered unsafe.

Friday, April 29, 2011

Kids who swap out regular dairy products for low-fat varieties consume less saturated fat but don't seem to lose weight, according to Australian researchers.

They found neither weight nor body mass index (BMI) had changed noticeably six months after children switched to low- or reduced-fat dairy products.

Instead of trimming their waistlines, kids who slashed fat intake appeared to compensate by eating more calories from other sources, according to the new findings, which appear in The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition.

Still, there might be other benefits to cutting back on saturated fat, said Dr. Frank Franklin, a retired professor of nutrition and pediatrics at the University of Alabama at Birmingham, who was not involved in the study.

For instance, it might help kids stave off heart disease as they grow up, Franklin told Reuters Health.

For the study, Gilly Hendrie and Rebecca Golley of the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organization divided 145 kids ages four to 13 into two groups. The researchers asked one group to replace their dairy products with low-fat varieties for six months, while the other got no dietary advice.

Sunday, April 24, 2011

Easter happened, and many people are now awash in Easter eggs, bright of blue, yellow, and green. Very cool colors, but just as many of us wring out hands over the simple egg. Is it good for us? What about cholesterol? Should I eat a boxed egg substitute?

Pu-leeeese.

Eggs rule. If you eat eggs in moderation, you will be doing yourself a huge health favor. What is moderation? 1-2 per day ... that's it. Oh, and CHOCOLATE eggs don't count as real eggs!!

People spend tons of money to make their hair and nails strong and healthy. Well, eggs do that for you, because of their high sulphur and vitamin B12 content and trove of vitamins and minerals. Many people find their hair growing faster after adding eggs to their diet. Plus, they're cheaper than those health "products."

Got protein? The egg does. Just one single egg has 6 grams of high-quality protein and all 9 essential amino acids.

Eggs are easy on the eyes. In fact, they're great for the eyes! In one study, 1 egg per day may prevent macular degeneraton -- because of the carotenes, specifically lutein and zeaxanthin. Like the protein, these nutrients are more readily available to our bodies in the form of an eggs than from other sources.

By the way, while we're talking about your eyes, researchers also found that people who eat eggs every day lower their risk of developing cataracts.

What about your cholesterol. It's true that a single yolk has ~215 mg of cholesterol. Yikes!! But, the Harvard School of Public Health has found no link between egg consumption and heart disease. None. In fact, according to one study, regular consumption of eggs may help prevent blood clots, strong, and even heart disease.

That may be because they contain the right kind of fat. One egg contains just 5 grams of fat and only 1.5 grams of that is saturated fat.

Even when you do consider the impact of eating eggs on your cholesterol levels, new research shows that moderate consumption of eggs does not have a negative impact on cholesterol. Having two eggs per day does not affect a person's lipid profile and may, in fact, improve it.

Now on from your heart to your brain. Eggs are a wonderful source of choline (~300 micro gms in 1 egg!!). What's choline? That is a critical nutrient that helps regulate the brain, nervous system, and cardiovascular system. Let's just say, you need it. A lot.

Eggs are one of the only foods that contain naturally occurring vitamin D.

Finally, eggs may help prevent breast cancer. Women who consumed at least 6 eggs per week lowered their risk of breast cancer by 44%. That's less than one egg per day. It goes right in your lunch bag.